Caveman Art

I have decided to try my hand at caveman art, simply because it is a bar set low. Surely if a caveman can do it. But you must be patient. These are my first attempts and I will post new ones as I evolve. Still getting used to my opposable thumbs. Perhaps if I build a fire in the arroyo and roast a mutton shank and contemplate the stars while gnawing it, inspiration might find a way.

Why the Caveman?

From the earliest Stone Age cultures, we find startling evidence of mankind's need to create and I believe this need above all else is what makes us human. There is something in our genetic makeup that compels us to express ourselves. What are we to make of the pre-historic cave paintings of Spain and France, and pictographs from around the world? Are they mysticism or merely creative exuberance? Did art precede language – perhaps as a way of communicating a strategy for the hunt? Or was art part of some elaborate ritual, intended to conjur up magic and guarantee success in the hunt? Did this then lead to a rudimentary form of religion? Or was art simply a celebration of the kill?

Speaking of cavemen and theology, Quizzenbury has a theory about that in my new book, Shaytan.

Ostensibly, Homo Sapien theological development did not occur quickly; nor did the belief in a human soul and the hereafter spring wholly formed from the head of a Neanderthal, like Athena bounding from the cleaved skull of Zeus. Rather, the notion of religion and the afterlife likely came about through some evolutionary process involving ordinary routine.

Perhaps it began with the simple act of burying the dead.

What if a caveman, let’s call him Clod just for fun, was a particularly good chipper of flint tools? And what if one day Clod was trampled by a rhinocerous? And what if, as an afterthought, someone dropped one of Clod’s spear points (perhaps broken or otherwise expendable) into Clod’s burial pit, perhaps on impulse or even as a gesture of respect for the once formidable hunter? Now we are teetering on the cusp between thinking (Clod not act normal) and wondering (why not?) and here comes the next great stride for humanity. Tradition. Tradition may also be defined as practice, habit, custom, convention, ritual, folklore, belief, faith and institution; in approximate ascending order of societal development and philosophical implication. To wit, once the practice of burying the dead became the norm, and the habit of commemorating the event in some token way took hold, it is very reasonable to assume that said burials and assorted accoutrements could become a tribal custom, leading to certain conventions that over time and with repetition might logically evolve into ritualistic behavior, spawning a type of folkloric significance, progressing to a more formalized doctrine of belief, which might be called mysticism or mythology and in time become faith, all of which over many generations and thousands of years could quite easily consolidate, codify and in the end become institutionalized in a form of religion. From spear point to pyramid, head stone to cathedral; burning ghat to Samsara; these are not such giant leaps in the context of human evolution, considering the first tiny step may have been taken by a naked ape, which had just discovered that cooked meat tasted better than raw flesh; and that his friend and cave mate Clod was beginning to reek. Once the routine practice of burial had begun and a token object was included into the burial procedure (or ceremony) which we know is in fact the case dating back to the Neanderthals around 130,000 years ago, the human (or pre-human) mind must have begun to wonder. Yes, the magic word, wonder! If-then! Follow the cave man logic curve. If Clod reek then put Clod in hole and cover Clod up. If cover Clod in hole then Clod no longer. If Clod no longer, where Clod go? Wait a minute! (Or several millennia.) When me no longer, where me go? Somewhere along the way, one must assume humans began demanding answers to questions such as these, questions that had no answers. And since there were no answers, humans had no choice but to make them up as they went along. Clod no longer? Consult Egyptian Book of Dead, Anubis good Jackal. Where Clod go? Look in Hindu Vedas, beware Yama, Lord of Dead Clods. Me no longer? See Quran between Mohamed and mountain. Where me go? Try the modern Bible. Still searching for answers? Sorry, fresh out.